THE POISON GARDEN website

Pontifications on Poison

Being some ramblings on events associated with poisonous plants.

Friday 29th November 2013

I said on Wednesday that I keep writing about
Catha edulis, khat, because not many other people are and that
seems to be confirmed by the limited coverage given to the
report from the Home Affairs Select Committee following its
evidence gathering on the reasons for the Home Secretary’s
decision to schedule khat and its likely impact.

The HASC report
is only ten pages long and shouldn’t have been hard to
assimilate and report on.

The final paragraph of the report says;

‘We recommend that the Government introduce a scheme for
licensing the importation of khat to the United Kingdom, instead
of controlling khat under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
(Paragraph 255)’

Usually, when a select committee unequivocally
says that government has got it completely wrong on a topic, the
media give the ‘spat’ a lot of coverage. But, so far, there has
been only limited media coverage judging by a
Google news search
for ‘khat OR qat’. Though one of returns is a
report on the BBC
website the subject
does not seem to have been included in any broadcast news this
morning (based on watching BBC1’s ‘Breakfast’ and listening to
Radio 4’s ‘Today’).

Page 11 gives the formal minutes of the meeting approving the
report and, though Michael Ellis, Conservative MP for
Northampton North, who made it clear at the last meeting that he
believes any intoxicating substance should be controlled, was
not in attendance, there is no indication that there were any
dissenting opinions.

The committee has not limited itself to saying that
classification would be a mistake. It has put forward an
alternative that would address the main reason given for the
decision; that the UK could become a hub for the export of khat
to countries where it is controlled.

The HASC suggests that khat imports are regulated with only
licenced importers able to bring it into the country. As Paul
Garlick QC said, on behalf of his client khat importer Mahamud
Ahmed Mohammed, a licenced importer would not be so foolish as
to risk his licence by allowing illegal re-export.

The report also believes that the effects of the ban in Kenya,
where most of the UK’s khat (known in Kenya as miraa) is grown,
would be that farmers losing their income could be fertile
recruiting material for Al-Shabaab.

It would be nice if Theresa May simply said she was wrong and
gave up the planned classification but that is highly unlikely
given that her intention was to show her right-wing supporters
how tough she is. Politicians like to have something to cite as
the reason for changing positions and, I think, the HASC may
have given Ms May the political cover she needs.

The terrible events at the Westgate mall in Nairobi in September
can be used to demonstrate that the vulnerability of Kenya to
terrorist subversion is far greater than was realised in July
when the decision to classify khat was made. The myth of Al-Shabaab’s
involvement in the khat trade can actually be put to good use by
suggesting that miraa growers would turn to Al-Shabaab to find
routes to market for what had become overnight an illegal
product.

Whether the Home Secretary accepts the HASC report and acts on
it or not, the conclusions are likely to be very helpful to the
High Court action seeking a judicial review. Theresa May could
wait for the outcome of that action so that she can blame the
court for a climb-down. That, of course, would involve a
substantial waste of money so it must be hoped that May will be
pressured on all sides to act immediately.

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